Picks up immediately where Fault left off. Contains spoilers for that episode DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT AND DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED! But for the love of God, see it, it's great!. Cragen decides enough is enough. EO

A/N: I don't own SVU
or any of its characters: NBC does. I also don't own the song;
Christina Aguilera or her label does. If you like this story, be
sure and review; right now it's a oneshot but if enough people
review I might continue the tale.

"I want a new
partner."

Cragen couldn't
believe his ears. What does she mean, she wants a new partner? Fin
had opened book two months after Kathy left Elliott on how long it
would take Benson and Stabler to realize they had feelings for each
other. The tension had been building through the past few months, to
the point where the entire unit was sure it would boil over soon. So
what the hell had…..oh no. Oh no. It was that damn monster they'd
just taken down. Son of a…

"Olivia, sit down.
Let's talk about this."

"Captain, there's
nothing to talk about. I want a new partner. It's a pretty simple
request."

"Listen, Olivia, what
happened out there….anyone would have done the same. You and
Elliott…it's something anyone would have done. You don't have
to switch partners because of this."

There it was. The
politically correct version of "I'm in love with my partner."
Cragen shook his head. Damn Elliott. Damn him to hell. Can't he
see what he's got here? With the new department regulations, it's
not like partners couldn't…well, be partners in every
sense of the word, unless it really did compromise professional
judgment. And Cragen would be damned if he saw his two best
detectives split because they thought they couldn't do the job.

To be sure, if
Cragen thought their professional judgment really would be
compromised, he'd split them himself. But with Elliott and
Olivia….their feelings, their closeness, enhanced their working
relationship. No cop would ever, ever leave his or her
partner injured. It was the most cardinal law of being partners—you
always, always have your partner's back. Elliott acted exactly as
he should have with Olivia in the terminal, first checking on her
then going after the perp. And from what he understood of the
incident in the warehouse, Olivia did the same, trying to talk down
the perp rather than escalate a situation which could have gotten
Elliott killed.

Cragen shook his head.
It was time to take drastic measures.

"Listen, Olivia, why
don't you take some time to think about this. It's been a tough
case. Go home, take tomorrow off, and if you still want a new
partner when you come back we'll discuss it."

"Captain, I really
don't think that's necessary…"

"I'm sorry
Detective; did I give the impression that was a suggestion?"

Olivia turned around,
defeated, and walked out of the office. Good—one problem down.
Now to go kick the other one in the ass…

Cragen stormed out of
his office, only half-faking his anger. He saw Olivia grab her coat
and walk out of the precinct, without a glance towards Elliott.
Elliott, at his desk, watched her leave, then turned back to his
report.

"Stabler, my office,
NOW!"

Elliott looked up,
grimacing. Great—the last thing he needed right now was to be
chewed out by Cragen. He was still beating himself up over his words
in the hospital. "I'm taken." How could he have been so
stupid? Taken by what? The job that he and Liv shared? An insane
desire to see the most depraved acts known to man perpetrated upon
innocent kids?

He still remembered the
fear he'd felt when Liv was slashed in the bus terminal. A
paralyzing, shattering hole in his chest had opened as he saw what
happened…Liv, shouting at the perp….the man slashing his knife
across her neck…her blood spilling out on the floor…and right at
that point, Elliott had frozen as the hole opened up. No…no…he
couldn't lose her….no….and that second had been all the perp
needed to grab both kids and run up the escalator. The next time he
saw the little boy, his lifeblood was flowing out across the cement
of the loading area.

He knew now it wasn't
Olivia's fault. She'd done everything she could to keep the kids
and the civilians safe. It was him. He'd frozen. He'd let his
feelings for his partner get in the way of his job…and a little boy
was dead. It could never happen again.

Sighing, Elliott stood
up and strode towards Cragen's office. The sooner this was done,
the sooner he could finish his report and go home…or possibly to
Liv's, to talk. They needed to figure out what they were going to
do about this situation.

Cragen sat down behind
his desk as Stabler walked in and shut the door. "You wanted to
see me, Captain?"

Cragen assessed
Elliott, noting the more-intense-than-usual stare, the barely
contained emotion. Well, this should shock him into some expression…

"Shut up, Stabler.
Now, you're going to listen to me and you're going to listen
well. First and foremost, neither you nor Olivia did anything any
cop wouldn't do for his partner."

"Captain, that's
not true. We--"

"SHUT UP, STABLER!"

Elliott closed his
mouth, waiting for Cragen to continue.

"Second,
your…closeness with Detective Benson has made you both more
effective as cops, not less. Third…are you blind! You have a
beautiful, strong, intelligent woman in front of you every day, who
clearly cares for you, and you've been pushing her away. Your kids
know and love her, your friends know and love her, and your
co-workers most definitely know and love her. She makes you a better
cop, and maybe even more importantly, she makes you a better man.
Have you never realized that before!"

"Yes," whispered
Elliott.

"Then what the hell
have you been doing all this time? No, don't answer that, I don't
want to know. But here's what I do want you to do. I've given
Olivia the rest of today and tomorrow off to think about her request
for a new partner. For all that is holy, for the good of this
precinct, and for all the future good you can do for the victims of
sexual crime in this city, go to her. Talk to her, try to convince
her that all your jacking off the past few years was to cover some
kind of emotional insecurity and…here's the tough part….tell
her how you feel! If you're lucky, she might just listen, and
I won't have to split up the best two detectives in SVU."

Elliott said nothing,
but just looked at Cragen. Then, almost before Cragen knew he'd
done it, he turned around, grabbed his coat, and was out the door.

Cragen looked upwards.
There was the second problem down; now, with any luck, all would work
out the way he knew it should.

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